Encyclopedia of Animal Rights and Animal Welfare Andrew Johnson Published online: 04 Jun 2010.

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1 This article was downloaded by: [Dr Kenneth Shapiro] On: 08 June 2015, At: 08:31 Publisher: Routledge Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: Registered office: Mortimer House, Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: Encyclopedia of Animal Rights and Animal Welfare Andrew Johnson Published online: 04 Jun To cite this article: Andrew Johnson (2000) Encyclopedia of Animal Rights and Animal Welfare, Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science, 3:1, 75-77, DOI: / S JAWS0301_8 To link to this article: PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the Content ) contained in the publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis, our agents, and our licensors make no representations or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Any opinions and views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors, and are not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of the Content should not be relied upon and should be independently verified with primary sources of information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for any losses, actions, claims, proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, in relation to or arising out of the use of the Content.

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3 JOURNAL OF APPLIED ANIMAL WELFARE SCIENCE, 3(1), Copyright 2000, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. Encyclopedia of Animal Rights and Animal Welfare Encyclopedia of Animal Rights and Animal Welfare. Edited by Marc Bekoff with Carron A. Meaney, Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1998, 446 pages, $ Reviewed by Andrew Johnson Publisher, White Horse Press To embrace the idea of animal rights is to adopt a significant change in worldview from that to which the vast majority of humanity is conditioned. In recognition of this, several seminal texts, such as Singer s(1976) Animal Liberation, have included appendices listing further reading, addresses of societies promoting animal welfare, and even hints on vegetarian cooking. Now, members of the animal rights movement need look no further for information on an extraordinary range of aspects of their worldview. The Encyclopedia of Animal Rights and Animal Welfare provides a compendium of authoritative and readily digested essays of between 100 and 1,000 words on subjects in applied welfare science, legal and regulatory issues, the philosophy of animal rights and its history, sociology, psychology, and anthropology. The entry titles range, unsurprisingly, from activism to zoos, as well as including more arcane topics such as bushmeat and the Norwegian Inventory of Audiovisuals. The list of around 130 contributors, more than 100 from North America, includes most of the names normally associated with the animal rights movement in academia. The scientific articles on the assessment of animal welfare are clear and jargon-free: they include Needs of Animals and Stress (Broom), Suffering of Animals (Morton), and Animal Boredom (Wemelsfelder). Contemporary issues involving animal welfare are covered somewhat unevenly to my mind, although the choice of topics is partly explained by the book s American genesis. There is plenty on the use and abuse of laboratory animals for teaching and research, for the production of vaccines, and as sources of gene sequences and organs for transplantation. Requests for reprints should be sent to Andrew Johnson, White Horse Press, 1 Strond, Isle of Harris, HS5 3UD, United Kingdom.

4 76 JOHNSON Companion animals and domestication are also well dealt with in general terms, although the articles on cats and dogs deal almost exclusively with the uses of these species in research and methods for the control of feral populations. Horses do not get an entry of their own, and there is little mention anywhere of how animals are trained to mold their behavior to the requirements of domestication. Factory farming is described, farm animal welfare is discussed briefly in terms of the Brambell Committee s five freedoms, and there are separate articles on chickens, pigs, and veal, as well as a succinct but informative entry on transportation and slaughter by Grandin. But in view of the vast numbers of animals that are kept to provide human food, I should have welcomed more general discussion of farming issues, including some mention of the welfare problems of extensive, as well as intensive, systems. Duties to wild animals and the specific problems of endangered species are dealt with in excellent articles by Rolston, and the possible tensions between animal rights and environmental ethics are examined by Hettinger and Sapontzis. Hunting is discussed by Pacelle solely in terms of shooting by North Americans, although this narrow focus is corrected somewhat by Cartmill s interesting contribution on the history of ideas surrounding hunting. The legal and regulatory framework governing the use of animals by humans is well covered, as are humane education projects again with an understandably North American emphasis. The theoretical framework for moral judgements is also explored, in terms of rival philosophical theories. The articles so far mentioned deal mainly in established scientific facts, or at least in the relatively precise propositions of positive philosophy and jurisprudence. They alone would comprise a useful compendium, but a major part of the book s interest lies in the articles dealing with the historical and social scientific aspects of the human animal interface. Much of the material here is more interpretive than purely factual, and the interpretations range from the relatively naive to the more reflective and self-critical. At the academic level, the historical sketches could be criticized for being selective and partisan, but for many readers of this encyclopedia this hagiology will provide a reassuring historical matrix for their socially unorthodox new worldview. In fact, as the list of contributors makes clear, the book is effectively an encyclopedia for animal rights rather than an impartial survey of the field. I have no particular problem with this: Much overtly impartial academic work conceals a thoroughly partisan subtext, reflecting the prejudices of authors or sponsors. On the whole, I think the Encyclopedia avoids this trap, and the quality of the majority of contributions is admirable. However, on occasion there is a bias in favor of the more upbeat and politically correct and an apparent unawareness of the nastier side of human nature. For example, sympathy for animals and empathy for animals are the subjects of unusually helpful and perceptive contributions by Fisher and Wemelsfelder, but

5 BOOK REVIEWS 77 cruelty receives no correspondingly substantial treatment. Perhaps this is an oversight, as the subjects of bestiality and compulsive animal collecting are dealt with. Yet again, in the coverage of contemporary issues, although rodeos get a mention, bullfighting, cockfighting, and dogfighting do not. In similar vein, the articles on different religions emphasize their pro-animal aspects, and gloss over such topics as ritual slaughter. The dark issue of animal sacrifice receives only a tantalizingly brief mention in Arluke s contribution on the particular use of the term by laboratory scientists and technicians. However, the worst articles in the book must surely be the trio dealing with native peoples and animals, which present an uncritical picture of noble savages who are universally kind and unbelievably cuddly. It is crucial to develop a more reflexive understanding of the animal rights movement as a product of social and historical factors, and given the quality of insights provided by authors such as Douglas, Kellert, and Ritvo, the articles dealing with these topics could have been much better. Also, although the editors obviously had to draw the line somewhere, I personally would have welcomed one or two more articles on animals in literature, in the vein of Scholtmeijer s excellent piece on metamorphoses. Despite such minor complaints, my overall opinion of the book is highly favorable. The presentation, cross-referencing, index, and bibliography are all good, if slightly let down by a curious and rather dull selection of illustrations. The coverage really is encyclopedic. The book is not only a useful reference but also a truly fascinating volume to dip into. REFERENCE Singer, P. (1976). Animal liberation. London: Jonathan Cape Ltd.

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To link to this article: This article was downloaded by: [Dr Kenneth Shapiro] On: 08 June 2015, At: 07:45 Publisher: Routledge Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer